Tuesday, December 13, 2011
How Annoying
The beautiful thing about my job is not only that I'm good at it, but I also get all kinds of magazines. Funny how I pull publishers' data together to create reports, but no one will publish me. Ah....the irony...At least they like my reports, even if they don't know me, the person behind them!
Anyway, I picked out Writers Digest and was sorely disappointed...again. Their advice is obvious and redundant. Then they have pages of agents/publishers. Some of the recommendations are of entities I have found on writers beware. Yikes! Do they do any research or are they simply in churning out enough pages to qualify as a sellable magazine?
Something else I noticed is the agents they recommend are no longer employed at the agencies they are listed as representing. I don’t know, maybe they are dead? Maybe there is a big revolving door at these places? It all seems very unstable to me.
I have read so much advice of querying and book writing that it’s near pathetic on my part to keep on doing it. Okay, I’m not saying my work is worthy of publication, although Exterium is doing very well on authonomy.com. That’s beside the point. Am I a little bitter? Yeah, but at least I’m realistic and hold a full time job that not only pays well, but is also enjoyable.
This is some of the conflicting advice I have read:
Wow, which is it? Oh I think I’ve got it. We pathetic unpublished writers (we cannot call ourselves authors), are so desperate the find the answer to what’s missing in our novels that we waste our time, sometimes money, to find the answers.
Well, I have to admit I have also read there are no set rules. This is so true. How many of us have read “best sellers” only to be disappointed? For example, Hunger Games was the worst piece of crap I have ever read. Then there is the obscure book with little sales on Amazon, and even fewer rating that are awesome. For example, Battle Royale.
I have read a lot of struggling writer’s works and some are terrible and others pretty darn good. So what aren’t the good ones published? Well, I think it depends on the taste of the agent/editor. Of course that makes perfect sense. Also, luck…lots and lots of luck. Talent, in my opinion, is a minor point. A lot of people can write well…and well is enough.
Anyway, I picked out Writers Digest and was sorely disappointed...again. Their advice is obvious and redundant. Then they have pages of agents/publishers. Some of the recommendations are of entities I have found on writers beware. Yikes! Do they do any research or are they simply in churning out enough pages to qualify as a sellable magazine?
Something else I noticed is the agents they recommend are no longer employed at the agencies they are listed as representing. I don’t know, maybe they are dead? Maybe there is a big revolving door at these places? It all seems very unstable to me.
I have read so much advice of querying and book writing that it’s near pathetic on my part to keep on doing it. Okay, I’m not saying my work is worthy of publication, although Exterium is doing very well on authonomy.com. That’s beside the point. Am I a little bitter? Yeah, but at least I’m realistic and hold a full time job that not only pays well, but is also enjoyable.
This is some of the conflicting advice I have read:
1. Add a lot of supporting detail to paint the scene.
2. Limit detail to the bare minimum, allowing the reader to paint their own picture.
3. Don’t start a book with dialog, it seems like an attempt to jump right into action and misses a proper beginning.
4. Enough with the detail. Get straight to the action, otherwise you bore the reader.
Wow, which is it? Oh I think I’ve got it. We pathetic unpublished writers (we cannot call ourselves authors), are so desperate the find the answer to what’s missing in our novels that we waste our time, sometimes money, to find the answers.
Well, I have to admit I have also read there are no set rules. This is so true. How many of us have read “best sellers” only to be disappointed? For example, Hunger Games was the worst piece of crap I have ever read. Then there is the obscure book with little sales on Amazon, and even fewer rating that are awesome. For example, Battle Royale.
I have read a lot of struggling writer’s works and some are terrible and others pretty darn good. So what aren’t the good ones published? Well, I think it depends on the taste of the agent/editor. Of course that makes perfect sense. Also, luck…lots and lots of luck. Talent, in my opinion, is a minor point. A lot of people can write well…and well is enough.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Long Time
It has been quite a while since my last post. I guess this is a great way to 'release' because I'm certain only a few people stumble onto this blog by accident. Ha! Good news is that Exterium has been a hit on authonomy and youwriteon. Charlie's Haunting: Of Death and Romance, is slow to catch, which surprises me. My daughter was so into it! Anyway, my next book is on it's way. This one is non-fiction. I guess I'm dipping my feet in all genres to see which one gets the most votes. Funny, in college, I was told I should write children's books because I wrote simple. It was a bit insulting at the time, but maybe she was right.
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